Posts by andrew

A woman seated at a chair in a kitchen tying large red rosettes to a shining red ribbon that trails off her lap and into a box on the floor.

Lion Food (Oranges, Cabbage, and Red Envelopes) for the Grand Opening

Newsletter Archive Dec. 1, 2022 This Saturday is the grand opening celebration of our new teahouse with a ribbon cutting, a lion dance, and martial arts and musical performances from 10:45 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. The lanterns are hung, the red ribbon is knotted, and we’ve even got a sign on the front of the… // MORE

Close view of amber colored black tea pouring from a soft ruby red easy gaiwan into two matching cups. The cups sit on a bamboo tray and a book on Yixing teapots is visible in the background.

Black teas from the early origins: Three classics in top form.

Newsletter Archive Nov. 4, 2022 This weekend only, you can get 20% off three black teas, one from each of China’s most celebrated and historic centers of black tea production. Each is made from spring leaf from this year, unbroken and unblended for a true picture of their origin. Tongmu Lapsang Souchong: The very first… // MORE

Screenshot of a very old–fashioned website for Seven Cups in a browser window.

20 years old and still green.

Newsletter Archive Oct. 28, 2022 This November marks a full 20 years since Seven Cups officially started business. Let’s honor the occasion by going back to where we started: green tea. We’re showcasing four green teas: the prestigious Xishan Bi Luo Chun, the little champion Mengding Maofeng (Feather Peak), the singular and inimitable Ming Qian… // MORE

A hand pouring steaming hot tea out of a gaiwan into three small porcelain cups on a round clay tea tray.

Flowers from Exile: Dan Cong Wulong

Newsletter Archive Oct. 7, 2022 Dan Cong wulong is a tea of contrasts – it’s potent and nuanced, it’s both sharp and mellow, it’s astringent and sweet all at once. This year, we selected a micro-lot to celebrate the dynamism of the Dan Cong style. Welcome Jianghua Xiang (Ginger Flower). If you’re a Tasting Flight… // MORE

Two people hovering over a table of about a dozen brewed teas for comparative tasting, only their arms in view.

How do you learn the difference between tea terroir, plant variety and processes?

Newsletter Archive Aug. 26, 2022 We’re featuring six teas this week that are perfect for comparative tasting: that’s black teas Zui Chun Fang (Drunken Peach) and Dianhong Gongfu; wulongs Jin Guanyin (Golden Tieguanyin) and Chuantong Tieguanyin (Traditional Tieguanyin); and green teas Ming Qian Anji Baicha (Early Harvest Anji) and Mao Jian (Misty New Top). People… // MORE

Close view of a painted white gaiwan held up in both hands to show the tea leaves and jasmine petals brewing inside, holding the lid open with one hand and bracing the saucer in the other.

The Favorite Daughters of Sichuan

Newsletter Archive Aug. 19, 2022 This weekend we’re featuring all jasmine teas, all gaiwan and all tea accessories. Born of Sichuan, humble and sophisticated, ancient and modern: a well-used Gaiwan exudes charm and commands reverence. As the legend goes, the first gaiwan was designed by the daughter of a Tang Dynasty Provincial Governor. In the damp… // MORE

A purplish rock on a plate, next to a sculpted yixing teapot and clay teacup.

Yixing and Yancha: A Natural Pair

Newsletter Archive Aug. 12, 2022 This weekend, we’re featuring all Yixing teaware. Need something to brew in that handsome new teapot? We recommend these three classics of Wuyi Rock Wulong: Rougui (Cassia Bark), Shuixian (Narcissus), and Xiao Hong Pao (Little Red Robe). The soils of Wuyishan and Yixing are nearly 400 miles apart from each… // MORE

Two wrapped cakes of puer tea are held above a pile of other puer teas on a wooden table.

Puer tea in your luggage, cellar, or teapot.

Newsletter Archive Aug. 5, 2022 We’re featuring all Puer cakes this weekend. That includes two fresh offerings: the newly restocked Cha Tao (Aged Old Tree) cake and the Jinggu Sheng Xiao Fangzhuan (Little Sheng Jinggu Brick) 2013. As the lore goes, compressed cakes of puer tea came to be in the days of old, when tea… // MORE

In between the rows of bushes in a hillside organic white tea garden, two people hoe weeds. You can see more hills and some buildings in the distance behind them.

The Big Heat: White tea, tall grass, meadow shade.

Newsletter Archive Jul. 29, 2022 This weekend, cool off with Baihao Yinzhen (Silver Needle) 2022 and Bai Mudan (White Peony) 2021 white teas, as well as the Yunnan “white puer” tea, Yue Guang Bai (White Moonlight) 2018 loose leaf. We’re in the thick of Dashu, the Great Heat, the 12th solar term of the traditional… // MORE

Looking up a narrow valley between small volcanic cliffs, filled with short rows of tea bushes and overshaded by trees.

The great teas of Wuyishan and their gaiwan best friend.

Newsletter Archive Jul. 22, 2022 Behold! The Four Famous Bushes of rock Wulong: Da Hong Pao (Big Red Robe), Tie Luo Han (Iron Monk), Shui Jin Gui (Golden Water Turtle), and Bai Ji Guan (White Rooster Crest). This weekend, we’re featuring them and their gold standard brewing vessel, the gaiwan. While these four teas have… // MORE

Several pitchers of black tea of different hues lined up on a stainless steel table.

All black tea considered…

Newsletter Archive Jul. 15, 2022 This weekend, we’re featuring our entire catalog of black teas. That includes both centuries-old classic styles like Tongmu Lapsang Souchong and newly crafted experiments like Anji Hong. If you’re up for doing some black tea experiments of your own, also check out our guide for cold-brewing black teas for summer.… // MORE

A hand sprinkling dry green tea leaves into a pint glass of hot water where they sink to the bottom and unfurl. Next to it, a glass gaiwan brewing already opened leaves.

Making tea is not a test.

Newsletter Archive Jul. 8, 2022 The fresh and aromatic 2022 harvest of Qimen Caixia (Sunrise Keemun) black tea is here – a black tea so classic and distinct, tea tasters just describe its bouquet as “the Qimen aroma.” We’re featuring it and 2022 Mengding Ganlu (Sweet Dew) this weekend. Don’t miss this chance to try… // MORE

Long tables covered in fresh Mogan tea leaves withering indoors.

A Yellow Tea for those in the know.

Newsletter Archive Jun. 24, 2022 Mogan Mountain is known for mythic swords, gangsters, and as a place where Chairman Mao once took a nap. Tea is not its historic claim to fame. And yet, it’s home to a tea garden, a tea factory, and a family of tea makers whose tea is so exceptionally good… // MORE

tall pint glass and a short glass pitcher full of brewing pale green tea leaves in bright sunlight, set on a wooden stool in front of vegetation. An arm reaches into frame to stir the leaves in the pint glass into a swirl with a pair of small wooden tea tongs.

Spring still sings: Anji Baicha and Anji Hong

Newsletter Archive Jun. 17, 2022 The pale jade leaves of 2022 Anji Baicha green teas are here. It took longer than usual, but this year’s harvest showed up as sweet and fragrant as a meadow after a rain shower. It’s been a wild season for Anji County. The spring harvest saw high price swings for… // MORE

Close view from above of two wide porcelain cups of dark tea and two display dishes of dry black tea leaves, surrounded by fresh pink bougainvilleas.

Fresh summer peaches and good black tea.

Newsletter Archive Jun. 10, 2022 Zhuping continues to bring in ripe summer peaches from her backyard tree for us here in Tucson, and just in time for the local peach season, 2022’s harvests of Tongmu Zui Chun Fang (Drunken Peach) and Tongmu Lapsang Souchong are here as well. As usual, these two teas come to… // MORE

Brewing two green teas in a tall glass bottle filled with very long green leaves and a round squat pitcher with rounded small single leaves dancing in it, set on a wooden tray next to a classical white and blue Chinese vase.

Strange Days, Strange Teas

Newsletter Archive May 27, 2022 We are proud to present a fresh crop of Tai Ping Houkui and Lu’an Gua Pian, two more green teas from Spring 2022. Both teas were made using unique, traditional and meticulous methods; their styles are so singular and bizarre that they aren’t replicated anywhere else in the tea world.… // MORE

High overhead view of several tea pickers in straw hats among rows of tea bushes, perpendicular to a large bank of blooming pink trees, harvesting Bi Luo Chun green tea in the spring.

The Tiny and The Strong

Newsletter Archive May 20, 2022 Don’t miss the fresh 2022 Bi Luo Chun green tea and 2021 Qimen Caixia black tea now in stock. Have you ever counted the tea leaves in your cup? Do that for Bi Luo Chun and you’ll find nearly 100 bud-and-leaf sprigs in a single gram. That’s 100 times someone… // MORE

Glasses of tea buds infusing in water touch in a toast against a sunny blue sky.

Single buds from two origins.

Newsletter Archive May 13, 2022 This weekend you can try the fresh 2022 harvests of the extraordinarily rare Junshan Yinzhen yellow tea and the widely popular Baihao Yinzhen “Silver Needle” white tea. If you love these teas or are curious to try at the peak of their aroma, now is your time. Both are plucked… // MORE

A woman wearing a smock and tea plucking basket stands beside a red motorcyle in front of a bamboo grove.

Even more spring tea just in time for Mother’s Day.

Newsletter Archive May 6, 2022 The fresh crop has arrived for 2022 Guzhu Zi Sun (Purple Bamboo Shoot), one of our most unique and small-scale green teas. With the release of this new tea, we’re proud to uphold our years-running Mother’s Day tradition of featuring Purple Bamboo Shoot as tea made by a small-but-mighty team… // MORE

A glass pitcher of brewing green tea, a small filled teacup with a single tea sprig floating in the middle, and a small brown paper package of tea leaves with a trailing untied red ribbon around it, all on a bamboo tray surrounded by green and red bamboo-like leaves of a plant.

Spring tea (at last.)

Newsletter Archive Apr. 29, 2022 2022 Spring teas are here at a last. As per our tradition, we’re immediately offering a discount on Shifeng Longjing for the first weekend. This discount comes with our gratitude to you. If you’re reading this, you’re likely as excited to see these teas show up as we are. Along… // MORE

A glass of brewing Silver Dragon Jasmine Pearls held up to the sky as the leaves within unfurl.

Scented teas for people who don’t like scented tea.

Newsletter Archive Apr. 22, 2022 This weekend, all our scented teas are featured and available to you. It’s a full on enflorage for sipping on your back porch, at your breakfast table, or in your midnight cuppa. For us, a guiding principle is to select the scented teas that can still be appreciated by folks… // MORE

Two women standing in the teahouse, one holding a baby, while a young man seated next to them pours tea.

18 years ago, our teahouse opened its doors.

Newsletter Archive Apr. 15, 2022 This is the first anniversary in two years since the teahouse has been open for table service. This has us reflecting on how fortunate we are to be there in the first place. The story of how it all came together is one of no small amount of hard work,… // MORE

Two ladies in hats and smocks standing among the tea bushes, holding up the fresh sprigs of green tea they’ve just plucked.

A new micro-lot from Yiwu and new developments in the spring harvest.

Newsletter Archive Apr. 8, 2022 As spring roars into full effect, we’re bringing out a few hidden treasures. Now available in our online store and teahouse is a limited delivery of Yiwushan (Yiwu Mountain) 2020, a light-bodied sheng puer with layers of spring meadow character. We’re also highlighting two other Yunnan-grown micro-lots: Dark, old, and… // MORE

Three porcelain dishes full of dark dry tea leaves, one a long thin and twisted black tea, one fluffy and dark green with larger leaves and some buds, and one a broader dark twisted rock wulong.

Humans and tea go way back. Sip a few millenia of flavors.

Newsletter Archive Apr. 1, 2022 This weekend we’re featuring three teas from three unusual tea bush cultivars: one new, one old, and one downright prehistoric. That’s Huang Guanyin wulong tea, Tieguanyin Baicha white tea, and Laoshu Dianhong black tea. In the span of these three teas, you’re in for a tour through humanity’s long history… // MORE

In bright sunlight, a large white gaiwan full of very dark red-brown shu puer tea, set on a worn wooden surface next to a ceramic tea strainer and display dish of dry tea leaves. The leaves of a small green succulent plant poke in from the top of the frame.

A new shu puer with the timbre of the Jingmai woods.

Newsletter Archive Mar. 25, 2022 A few weeks ago, we surveyed you on what new teas you’d like to see this year. Thanks to everyone who responded! As expected, you had some thoughtful ideas on what to bring in. Something that we didn’t expect, though, was that the humble category of Shu Puer topped the… // MORE

A man kneeling behind his young daughter in the garden.

Teas from generational divide (and unity): The Zhang family’s Anxi wulong

Newsletter Archive Mar. 18, 2022 This weekend we’re featuring Jin Guanyin (Golden Guanyin) and Chuantong Tieguanyin (Traditional Tieguanyin), two wulong teas that straddle styles and generations. When Austin first met Zhang Qingmu, Zhang was fresh out of college and working to promote his uncle and father’s Tieguanyin wulong tea on the wholesale market. Today, Mr.… // MORE

Three men standing together in front of the trunk of an enormous tea tree that is wider than the three of them standing abreast.

Shu Puer: The masterpieces of the tea mycologist.

Newsletter Archive Mar. 11, 2022 This weekend, brew a cup of darkness with two new-process shu puer from the factory of Chen Keke and Li Dong – Shu Longzhu (Sweet Dragon Ball) 2016 and the Cha Tao (Aged Old Tree) 2017 cake, now back in stock after selling out surprisingly quickly. When we first started… // MORE

Two men seated next to a tea table in a large tent, one holding open a gaiwan of wet wulong tea leaves for them to examine.

In the grasp of your nose: The wulong teas of Liu Dexi

Newsletter Archive Mar. 4 2022 You might already know Liu Dexi. If you’ve tasted our Shuixian (Narcissus), Ba Xian (Eight Immortals), or the new 2021 Tie Luo Han (Iron Monk), you at least know Mr. Liu’s work. The man invests so much of himself into his tea making, the art and artist are hard to… // MORE

Three bamboo trays of dry black tea arranged in a fan next to an ornate enameled green gaiwan, a set of wooden tea tweezers, and a small porcelain cup of brewed tea.

Meet Sweet Vermilion black tea from Tongmu.

Newsletter Archive Feb. 25, 2022 There’s a new micro-lot selection among our black teas. Welcome Chi Gan (Sweet Vermilion) from Wu Jianming: the innovative tea maker behind Zui Chun Fang (Drunken Peach) and Tongmu Lapsang Souchong. If you’ve followed Seven Cups’ black tea selection for a while, you know Wu Jianming is a tea maker… // MORE

Looking down a rustic bridge with a rail on one side, made of interlocking logs over a small sunny mountain stream. Low tea bushes are scattered over the hillside among other natural trees and forest plants.

What is the oldest style of pan-fired tea in the world?

Newsletter Archive Feb. 18, 2022 What is the oldest style of pan-fired tea in the world? Huangshan Maofeng has an arguable claim to that title. The story of modern tea processing starts with a rebellion and a ban. The rebellion is that which brought the ascendance of China’s Ming Dynasty in 1368 CE and its… // MORE